


One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

by CaraLee



Series: Platonic Paladin Pile AU [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Platonic Soulmates, Soulmates AU, VLDgen, Voltron Bingo, as an experiment, between two twelve year olds, lance is insecure, soulmarks AU, there is one kiss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-09-05
Packaged: 2019-07-07 03:54:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15900363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaraLee/pseuds/CaraLee
Summary: For as long as he could remember, Lance had known that First Words were important. “When you meet your soulmate,” Mamá told him when he was five. “The First Words you say to them will be written on their skin forever. You never know who it will be, so you must make all your words kind.”“Or,” says his abuela. “You can make them memorable!”His grandparents are soulmates, his parents are soulmates, and Lance can’t think of anything more wonderful than to find his own and be that happy someday. He is very careful to remember as many First Words as he can for when his own show up on his skin.





	One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my first ever Soulmate AU!  
> This is also my first contribution to the Voltron Bingo event! It fills the squares for "Platonic Soulmates" on my Gen card and "Soulmates AU" on my AU card.  
> So much love and thanks to fandomanddenial and faiasakura who helped me bounce worldbuilding ideas and betaed for me. Y’all are awesome!  
> EDIT: Has been updated with the canon names for Lance's family, since I learned them literally the day after posting this story.

For as long as he could remember, Lance had known that First Words were important. “When you meet your soulmate,” Mamá told him when he was five. “The First Words you say to them will be written on their skin forever. You never know who it will be, so you must make all your words kind.”

“Or,” says his abuela. “You can make them memorable!”

(Abuelo laughs. the Words scrawled across his arm are words that Lance isn’t allowed to say because they are “inappropriate.”)

His grandparents are soulmates, his parents are soulmates, and Lance can’t think of anything more wonderful than to find his own and be that happy someday. He is very careful to remember as many First Words as he can for when his own show up on his skin.

 

* * *

 

The first friend Lance makes in America is Hunk.

It’s right after they move to Platt City when Papi is transferred from the Garrison base in Varadero to the one in the American _desert_.  (Lance is not a fan of this move. He misses the beach, and the ocean, and the water in the air.)

Lance is on the playground near their new house, missing Cuba, when he finds a boy about his age in the sandbox, building the most epic sandcastle he has ever seen.

“Holy crow!” He shouts, forgetting all about his recent determination to always introduce himself with one of the pickup lines Marco and Rachel had taught him. “¡ _Es muy grande!_ ”

The boy is so startled by Lance’s exclamation that he jumps and smashes the sandcastle to pieces, leaving him blinking up at Lance from a pile of sand, his bandana pushed down so that it almost covers one eye. “That’s not how you say that.”

Lance blinks back at him. “Not how you say what?”

“It’s ‘holy cow’ not ‘holy crow.’” He says.

Lance thinks about that for a moment. “English is dumb.” He declares with all the gravity of his seven and one third years. “Holy crow sounds better.” He sticks out his hand. “ _Me llamo Lance Álvarez McClain._ ”

The boy with the bandana shakes his hand. “I’m Hunk.”

 

* * *

 

Veronica gets her Words when Lance and Hunk are eight.

Lance comes home from school, considering ways he can convince Mamá to let him go over to Hunk’s even though they are both technically grounded after they snuck out to watch the Garrison fighters run drills. He walks through the door and isn’t able to open his mouth before Rachel swoops in and drags him towards the kitchen, not even letting him drop his backpack before he is tugged into the room where the entire family is clustered around the kitchen table as Veronica holds out her arm for Abuela’s inspection.

Lance knows immediately what has happened. Abuela is always the first to see someone’s words. She was the first when Luis got his words, when Marco and Rachel got theirs, and when Lance gets his the first person he will go to will be Abuela.

“ _You will have a full life,”_ Abuela says, releasing Veronica’s arm. She cackles and grins. “ _Possibly a very full sex life!_ ”

“¡Mamá!” Lance’s Mamá says, more resigned than shocked. Veronica turns bright red and pulls her arm in closer to herself.

Papi pats her on the shoulder reassuringly. “Don’t worry, Mija. Chances are, most or all of them are platonic. That is usual with multiple soulmates.”

“ _Not always!”_ Abuela chimes in, still grinning. “ _I knew this threesome in Camarioca when I was young-_ ”

Mamá rubs her nose between her eyes. “Is this really the time?”

“What happened?” Lance asks, still confused. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong, Mijo,” Mamá says firmly. “Veronica just has more than one soulmate.”

Lance’s little world comes grinding to a halt. _More than one soulmate? But…soulmates are the person you are destined to love and be with forever. How can you have more than one?_

Abuela reaches out and pats Veronica on the arm, her smile now small and warm. “Y _ou are fated to build strong bonds with many people. That is nothing to be ashamed of. It is a sad and lonely existence to only ever have one soul knit to yours. Very few people actually do, your Words just show that openly._ ”

Veronica nods but Lance withdraws, frowning as he thinks this over. Maybe there is nothing wrong with multiple soulmates, he thinks, _but…if there is more than the two of us…why would they even need me?_

 

* * *

 

He is with Hunk when he gets his Words.

They are at the Garrett’s home, playing vintage video games after school. Hunk is curled up in a pile of blankets on the sofa and Lance sprawled out on a nest of pillows and cushions on the floor beneath him, when Lance feels the first tingle on his arm. He’s focused enough on the game that it takes him a moment to realize that it isn’t an itch he’s feeling, but rather the moment he’s been waiting for since he was old enough to understand the concept of soulmates at all. He yelps and throws down his controller, peeling back the sleeve of the sweater he is wearing to watch them appear on his skin.

“Dude!” Hunk shouts, pausing the game as Lance stares, mesmerized. “Are those your Words?”

Lance nods, and Hunk tosses his own controller away and scrambles over to see.

Together, they watch the final strokes of “That’s not how you say that.” Be written onto Lance’s wrist. And then gasp as words _keep appearing_.

He is gaping at the in-progress, scrawled (in truly atrocious handwriting) “Lance, right?” when Hunk shrieks and turns his own arm over.

“Holy crow!” is scribed in a neat cursive and more Words are coming in underneath.

The two boys sit together in silence until the last of Hunk’s Words come in and they are left with five distinct sets of Words on each of their arms.

It’s not that multiple soulmates are _rare_ exactly.  Only slightly less than half the population have them, but Lance always found the idea slightly discomfiting, even after many conversations dedicated to reassuring him about the normality of Veronica’s four Words. He’s always dreamed of meeting his soulmate (singular) someday and having a whirlwind romance before settling down together, preferably back in Cuba. The yearly visits to Abuelo’s grave are not enough. He still misses his home.

“Lance, you’re my soulmate.” Hunk stammers, pointing at the pretty writing that spells Lance’s First Words to him, which have become an in-joke for the two of them.

Somewhat in shock, Lance holds his stick-thin arm up next to Hunk’s larger one. (They are only twelve and Hunk already has as many muscles as Marco, who is sixteen.)

“They match.” He says, hearing his voice almost like it’s someone else talking from far away. “The handwriting is the same.”

Other than the first line of Words, each of the other lines do indeed have the same handwriting as the corresponding line on the other’s arm.

_He has more than one soulmate. Hunk has more than one soulmate. They have the same soulmates. Does this mean that once they’ve found the others that Hunk won’t want Lance around anymore? Why would he when he will have so many people who are probably going to be so much cooler than Lance?_

Hunk nods, something that Lance feels more than sees, and points to Lance’s arm. “I guess we meet them together. Since they are in the same order. Three of our soulmates have really bad handwriting.” He squints at the third line. “I can’t even read that one. Grown-up you has really pretty handwriting though.” He waves his own arm in Lance’s face. “Even prettier than now.”

That is true, Lance is distantly proud of the fact that despite the inelegance of the phrase “Holy crow,” the curls and loops of his script permanently etched into Hunk’s skin look nice. Even if none of their soulmates cared enough to learn to write legibly, Lance can take comfort in the fact that his dedication is displayed in each careful stroke.

Lance had honestly expected Hunk to be the one of the two of them to panic when they got their Words, but he’s actually taking it rather calmly.

“One of our soulmates calls me ‘big man’.” Hunk says thoughtfully. “I wonder if I’ll be taller than Dad?”

“Five.” Lance finally manages to squeak out. “I have _five_ soulmates! _Five_!”

Hunk nods. “Me too. The same soulmates. Except, you know, you. Because you can’t be your own soulmate and I can’t be _my_ own soulmate but we can be each other’s soulmates. And we are. And that’s great!”

“But Hunk!” Lance wails, waving his arm in the air, his mind still caught up in a vicious cycle of distress over how much this is going to change. “This is _important_ , how can we get married! I can’t marry five people! It will completely destroy my plans! The church in Varadero is too small for that big a wedding party!”

Hunk grabs his hand and pulls his arm down. “Hey, not all soulmates are romantic you know. Dad and Uncle Philo are platonic soulmates. That means they are just really good friends. Like brothers. It’s why they moved here together from Samoa. Maybe just one of our soulmates is your romantic soulmate.”

“Oh.” Lance inspects his arm with renewed interest, a sliver of hope peeking through his panic. “I wonder which one?”

Hunk shrugs. “You haven’t met any of the others yet, have you?”

Lance squints at the scribbled writing right below _That’s not how you say it_ “I don’t think so? This is really hard to read. We need to get our soulmates handwriting lessons.” He pokes at the last row of Words. “This doesn’t even look like writing, just squiggles.”

Hunk pulls Lance a bit closer and peered at his arm, doing his best to sound out the words that were more like scratches on a wall than actual letters. “’Do...I…Do I know you?’ That’s your next Words, ‘Do I know you.’”

“That’s helpful.” Lance sighed and flopped back into his pile of pillows and blankets. “That could be anyone! And how am I supposed to tell if someone is a romantic soulmate or not?”

“Dunno.” Hunk shrugs. “I think it’s something you just kinda…figure out as you go along?”

“That’s not very romantic.” Lance says, pouting for a moment before his eyes light up. “I know! I need to test it!”

“How?” Hunk frowns, confused. “I don’t think soulmates are something you can test.”

“Not like _that_ . Like, I need to test if someone is a _romantic_ soulmate!”

Hunk just frowns deeper.

Lance rolls his eyes. “Kissing. I need to kiss all my soulmates! If it is meant to be I will feel the _magic_!”

“I don’t think that’s how kissing works.” Hunk says doubtfully. “Teuila says it’s actually kind of gross-”

“Teuila has no sense of adventure.” Lance says grandly. “And what does she know anyway?”

“She has a boyfriend.” Hunk points out and Lance waves the minor detail off.

“We need to kiss.”

“Wait, what? Me? Kiss you?” Hunk stammers, completely distracted from defending his sister’s expertise on kissing.

“Of course.” Lance nods. “You are the only soulmate I have met so far, so I should probably start with you. Don’t you want to know if we are destined to be together, Hunk?”

“We _are_ destined to be together.” Hunk waves his arm in Lance’s face, his voice steadily climbing in pitch. “That’s what being a soulmate means!”

Lance just sits and looks at him expectantly.

“Why do we have to do this _now_? Couldn’t we wait until we find the others?”

Lance scoots closer.

“And how do you even know that it will work? Maybe it-”

Hunk is cut off, wide-eyed, when Lance leans up and presses his lips against his. He freezes for a moment, not moving as Lance opens his eyes and pulls away, nose wrinkled. He inspects Hunk thoughtfully for a moment.

“I don’t think you are my romantic soulmate.” He forces himself to smile as he says it, despite the pang of disappoint. Maybe, if Hunk was his romantic soulmate, he’d be able to keep him.

Hunk gapes like a fish.

Lance sighs and pulls his controller idly back over towards them. “No offense, Hunk. I really like you and all, but there just weren’t any sparks there.” He pauses a moment. “Though that could be because there wasn’t any tongue like when Luis kisses Lisa.” For a second, he considers lunging back over and trying again.

“ _No!_ ” Hunk sputters. “No. No. We are not doing that again. I don’t really _want_ to be romantic soulmates with you! I like having you as a best friend!”

“Awww!” Lance feels oddly touched, despite the small stone that seems to have taken up residence in his stomach. “I like having you as a best friend too, Hunk.”

And then he re-starts the game and pushes Hunk off the Rainbow Bridge.

 

**Author's Note:**

> (Yes, Hunk and Lance kiss. No, they will not be a couple. The entire point of this AU is platonic soulmates.)  
> I can be found on tumblr at liveandletrain (my main) and voltronbookshelf (my vld sideblog)


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